Friday

Well it was in the low 70's this AM as Chester woke us all up around 5. I managed to sleep in until the alarm went off at 6 shutting that big mouth bird off in my consciousness. After my quiet time and a bowl of oatmeal with fruit I pedalled out to the rec for a couple hours of pickle ball. It seems the intermediate players will be joining us on Fridays now that basketball has taken over their Saturday morning time slot for the gym, so there was a rather large crowd with 3 courts in full swing and 4-6 waiting most times. The play was still fairly good with most of the players actually playing better and I noticed lots of new faces. I had a wet shirt by 10 o'clock and was ready to relax after 3 hard playing morning. It's strange how quickly you can get out of shape; starting with sore muscles and a slight loss of stamina in just a week of not playing hard. I guess that comes with age as well.

I stopped off at the library on the way home and picked up a couple reads for the week-end. Nancy was at her Bible study for Fridays so I did a load of laundry and hung that out after watering the gardens. The new Cilantro and Sweet basil plants I separated into 3 pots each are showing signs of new growth as that was a success. I'm hoping they will make it so I can transplant them in the mountains in May. There is nothing like the fresh taste of both herbs especially Basil on a salad and Cilantro on Mexican food, Yikes that is good. I sat back and read until Nancy came from her study. We finished the taco meat and Jasmine rice for lunch and with a little jalapeno peppers on it, dewisheous.

We stayed in most of the afternoon as the humidity was back with vengeance and read until it was time to get ready to head over to GG's for supper. I pulled a huge bag of fresh kale as well as a huge bag of collard greens for our dear friends Ralph and Sara Ann. He is not doing well due to congestive heart failure plus his age and several previous heart attacks. If you think of it keep both of them in your thoughts and prayers; she at this time is his primary care giver and you can see the toll its taking on her health as well. We didn't visit except to say hi and give them the greens as Ralph really loves greens. Both of them are from Galax, Va. and we have grown fond of their company over the years especially when we met them at our cabin in a strange sort of way. They had come to the foot of the hill from our cabin looking for an old pastor friend that use to own a cabin there. We only knew Ralph and Sara Ann by face from our old church in Seminole. I was in a ditch cleaning it out at the foot of our drive when I saw this car from Florida and then I recognized the Payne's. Well our friendship has blossomed over the years and we regularly visited with them when they came to Galax for the summers as well as they would visit us at the cabin. Super nice folks and its sad to see him in this condition.

Well we visited and ate with GG until nearly 9 PM before calling it a day. She had a nice pork loin with sauerkraut(one of our favorite meals), kielbasa, and hot dogs as well as smashed taters and Nancy made a huge salad, good eatin' once again and after the clean up we headed out. GG has really done quite well and is daily going through Will's clothes and things they have accumulated over their 60 years together. She is actually starting to regain some of the weight she lost during his final days.

Well it was a full day and Saturday seems to be another one as well as our house church will do FREE oil changes and safety checks at Twill Auto for single moms and wives whose husbands are in the military and overseas. We also give each mom a $10 gas card. We are starting to get some repeat moms as we do this every 3 months. Its fun to give to those who are least expecting despite the idea that some of the moms are very skeptical that anything is free. We have made a believer(no pun intended) out of several as we share the love of Christ in an unorthodox way. I think we have 11 appointments scheduled during this 9-12 program. LATER